The present invention relates to a method for efficiently producing advertising for insertion into magazines. In particular, the present invention relates to utilizing information concerning different magazine titles in order to efficiently utilize printing press capacity to produce regional magazine advertisements.
Local advertising expenditures in the United States approached about 93 billion dollars in 2002. Newspapers captured about 41% of the market for such expenditures, while television captured about 18%, radio accounted for about 15%, Yellow pages attracted about 12%, other media captured about 12%, and national magazines garnered only about 2%.
Magazines are assembled in a bindery, and the binding type of a magazine determines the particular method used to bind the pages together. A “perfect” bound magazine is one in which the pages are collated consecutively and then glued along their spine. A cover is then wrapped around the spine. A “saddle” bound magazine is one in which the pages are assembled by dropping them onto a chain line (explained below). The cover for a saddle bound magazine is not wrapped but dropped around the pages and then stapled/stitched on the spine to hold the pages of the magazine together. Thus, saddle bound magazines are assembled from the middle sections outward to the cover at the end of the process.
At a bindery, the printed pages of a magazine which contain both content and advertisements are typically loaded into special bins. A saddle production line includes a chain line, while a perfect bound production line includes a belt-way, that travels beneath the bins. Each of the printed pages is dropped onto the chain line, or placed onto the belt-way by a series of mechanisms, to accumulate the pages of a particular magazine. The pages of the magazine are aligned into a stack, trimmed to remove excess paper, and then bound.
A typical advertising signature is a sheet of paper that contains two or more full-page advertisements. If the signature contains more than two advertisements (i.e. is more than two pages), then it is folded in the middle, and a stack of such papers is placed into a particular bin so that the advertising insert will be placed into a location within a magazine by the bindery. A signature is also known as a “form” or “insert”.
In some cases, an advertiser requires that a “direct response card” for consumer use be attached to a particular advertisement on a page. Some examples of direct response cards are post-it® type notes, standard three and one half inch by five inch cards, a three and three-eights inch coated tag, and a paper rolodex card or other items. The response cards are attached by companies called “tippers” after the advertisement pages have been printed, using a separate process, or may be affixed by the printer at the end of the print process.
Magazine Advertising Service Companies offer publishers and advertisers magazine advertising marketing services to facilitate the production and delivery of advertising inserts or forms to be bound into magazines. Such companies take advertisement orders, instruct printers to ensure that the advertisements are printed correctly, and coordinate with bindery companies of publishers to assemble the magazines with the advertising inserts. These companies offer advertisers the opportunity to place local or regional advertisements in national magazines.
In order to offer advertisers such services in a cost effective manner, a Magazine Advertising Service Company groups national magazines sharing similar editorial/audience attributes into “networks” so that print efficiency and circulation volume can be achieved. Magazines in a particular network typically share similar demographics, similar interests, and/or share similar editorial appeal of the content. FIG. 1 is a table illustrating how magazines were conventionally grouped into networks. In this example, magazines are grouped into an “Executive” group 30; a “Family” group 32; a “Home” group 34; a “Leisure” group 36; a “Menstyle” group 38 and a “News” group 40. It was recognized that certain printing efficiencies are realized by printing regional advertisements for similar magazines within a particular group.
It was recognized that advertising inserts for two magazines having similar or identical physical properties could be printed on the same printing press to improve printing press utilization. Referring to FIG. 1, column 42 denotes the names of magazines, and the other column headings denote various physical characteristics of the pages of each magazine listed. In particular, the column headings indicate bind 44, jog 46, magazine trim 48, off-press signature size 50, the size delivered to the bindery 52 and the bindery name 54 that assembles that magazine. The “jog” type of a magazine refers to how the printed pages are aligned by a bindery. The bindery machinery typically taps the accumulated pages at the “head” (near the top of the page), or the “foot” (near the bottom of the page) in a manner similar to that used by a person to align a stack of sheets of paper. The “magazine trim” dimensions pertain to the size of one page in the magazine, the “off-press signature size” pertains to the size of a printed sheet including borders, and the “delivered to bindery” size indicates the size of a sheet after it has been printed and trimmed.
Referring again to FIG. 1, the first four magazines of the Executive group 30 all use a perfect bind, are jogged to the foot, have similar magazine trim requirements, similar off-press signature sizes, and have similar sizes delivered to a bindery. Thus, advertisement printing jobs for these four magazines can be married or ganged together to optimize printing press usage. The next two magazines (“Fast Company” and “Inc.”) are similar to each other, but have off-press signature sizes and sizes delivered to the bindery that do not match up with those of the first four magazines. Thus, the print runs of advertisement inserts for each of these two magazines can be ganged together, but cannot be married with advertising pages of the first four magazines, even though they are all “Executive Group” magazines as this would result in tremendous waste.
Furthermore, the last magazine listed in the Executive Network (“Business Week”) has characteristics such as a saddle bind, jog to the head, and magazine trim size that are incompatible with the characteristics of other magazines in the network. Consequently, print runs for “Business Week” can only be married with each other, and cannot be printed in combinations with any other Executive Network magazine.
It has been recognized that since the same regional advertisements are typically used within a particular network of magazines, a cost savings can be realized if an advertisement or “signature” is printed in bulk and then shipped for insertion to the binderies that assemble those magazines. However, in order to offer such a marketing package, one must consider a minimum circulation of magazines, typically from four to six national magazines, and this is obtained by combining the circulation of such magazines. Then, the advertising can be printed for the total circulation and be distributed among the magazines. The bulk production of the advertising is correlated to the minimum circulation. This correlation is made by ganging or marrying certain groups of magazines that appeal to a particular segment of the population, along with the correlation of similar quantities that are required for different geographical regions.
For example, the advertising is initially designed for inclusion in a network of four news and sports magazines. The circulation for one region is combined with that of another, similarly sized region, e.g., Seattle and Denver. Then, the specifically tailored advertising for each region can be ganged for efficient printing, after which they are separated and distributed to magazine binderies. While such operation is somewhat effective, it forced certain print limitations. For example, four page, six page and eight page inserts had to be printed for one network at a time, which extended the length of time a printer needed to complete the print runs. Printing thus had to be staged, so that inserts for magazines of one network were printed soon after inserts for magazines of another network, in a manner to ensure that the bindery delivery date deadlines could be met. Such restrictions limited the manner in which the printer could manage print runs.
Accordingly, there is a need in the field to control costs and minimize waste. By controlling and ultimately reducing such costs, advertisers will find it more attractive to place regional advertisements in national magazines, and publishers will benefit because of the increased demand for advertising in their magazines. The present invention now provides new and improved ganging or marrying procedures that combine regional advertising for efficient publishing to satisfy this need.